As a career coach, I’ve learned that the driver for every reason is one of two things: (1) Purpose: moving towards something you want. (2) Fear: preventing or avoiding something you don’t want. Here’s how to figure out what’s driving you…

Seven years ago, I made the leap from traditional employment to running my own business. From the outside, you might be tempted to make up a story about how brave and confident I was to make this leap. But it definitely didn't feel that way at the time.

Gentle encouragement to rediscover what lights you up.

Sometimes people ask what it means when we say that we work with mission-driven professionals. It may not be what you think.

When I was in my early twenties, I watched a lot of my peers go to graduate school.

It mystified me because I always believed that investing time and money in an advanced degree meant knowing for sure that this right here is my specific thing, having a clear sense of direction.

I sure didn’t have that. And I didn’t know how others my age did.

More often than not, I suspected that my friends went to grad school not out of clarity of purpose but rather out of fear.

Education can enrich us—it can be a catalyst that propels us.

But it can also hold us back—it can be a place to retreat to out of fear.

Here are five types of fear that drive us to learn…

When I found myself at a career crossroads two years ago, I polled about 85 people for their opinions on what I should do. I had been climbing the ladder in my organization for seven years—through five job titles—and had reached the point where something needed to shift. The problem was, I wasn’t sure what to shift: Do I scale back my hours? Advocate to reshape my role? Find another role in a larger nonprofit? Finally launch my own business?

I asked friend after mentor after trusted colleague for their guidance. Since I was feeling so wobbly about the decision within myself, I was stuck in a spin of wanting someone to tell me exactly what to do. But after the 85th conversation, I realized: no one could make this decision except for me. And I had no idea of how to do that.

Decision-making is central to the modern career landscape. That means that we’re in the driver’s seat; we are the decider of where we’re going. That gives us a lot of freedom to explore, follow our interests and talents, and grow in exciting ways. But it’s also a huge responsibility to be in control of our own paths. It means that we’re making more decisions than ever before—and we need to get better at making those choices. Here’s how.

It might seem a little foggy at first, but with a little attention and intention soon you'll see your meaningful work clearly.

A few weekends ago, I facilitated a staff retreat for a team of scientists and engineers from an innovative medical device startup. As we got to know each other over dinner, the CEO asked me: "So Carole Ann, how did you come to coaching?"

The answer is simple: It all started with a red chair.

Read more about how asking yourself "Where are the red chairs in my life?" is the key to finding your sweet spot and discovering your "thing."

One of my clients, Kelly, is on the hunt for her next position. She’s looking to pivot into something new—diving into policy in the public sector—after several years in corporate finance and operations.

Here’s the challenge: looking through job postings is like trying to drink water out of a firehose.

Culling through Indeed, sorting out job alerts, and finding the right opportunities has left Kelly feeling drained, especially on top of the full-time job that she is so ready to move on from. She’s having trouble staying motivated and positive as she looks to the future.

When embarking on a job search, we usually start with two obvious questions:

• What is the title of the role I want to step into?

• What industry do I want to work in?

We use the answers to these questions to create the framework of the search. For Kelly, that’s becoming a Policy Analyst in state government.

But here’s a different approach to a job search—one that goes far deeper than the job title and industry to bring a more purposeful lens to your search.